Chapter 8

They both stopped in mid-stride upon hearing the scream, but once Bianca realized it was Greenlee, she almost started running again. Blake held her back and indicated for her to be silent. Quietly the two made their way through the brush and suddenly stood on the outer edge of what appeared to be a village. They stepped back some and crouched down low in the bushes, watching the commotion in the center.

There were dozens of villagers standing in a large circle, cheering over something they couldn't see. And then Bianca spotted the two poles off to the side of the circle, one empty but the other restraining her friend. This time though she remained on her spot and instead pointed towards it to show Blake. They saw Greenlee, twisting in her restraints, yelling at the people and Blake thought she'd surely gone mad now. One of the tribal warriors walked over to her and backhanded her across the face, effectively silencing the girl by knocking her unconscious.

Bianca winced as she saw her friend take the hit, but even she knew they couldn't charge into a village when dozens of people were standing right there. She sighed and sat on the dry soil, wondering how on earth they would be able to free anyone from there.

"Blake, what're we gonna do?" she asked, the hopelessness shining through her voice.

He looked at her, at a loss for a solution and sat next to her. If he really had a say he wouldn't have even chased after Greenlee in the first place, but he couldn't let Bianca run to her own death. Blake didn't care one bit if those tribal people took Greenlee apart and ate her for dinner, but he wasn't going to let Bianca know that. After all, he wanted her to think highly of him and suggesting leaving her friend as a cannibalistic treat surely wouldn't do that.

"We'll wait. There's gotta be a time when no one's running around watching her. They don't seem very concerned with security, they're probably the only tribe on the island and they'd never expect any of us to follow them. Maybe we can sneak them out at nighttime," he suggested, referring to both Greenlee and Peter, although they hadn't spotted the man yet.

Bianca nodded slowly and watched her friend tied to the post. She wanted nothing more than to take Greenlee and get them both away from this stupid island, someplace they could be safe and, hopefully, together.

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Al McKenzie stood, looking over the railing of the ship at the island that was drawing nearer. They'd nearly reached their destination and search crews were getting ready for deployment. He looked down at himself, wearing the same clothes as the other members of the team – a dark t-shirt that said 'Search and Rescue' on the back, black cargo pants and combat boots. He wondered why exactly they had to wear dark clothing in this heat, but he knew the outfit's efficiency in dealing with thick brush and dangers such as snakes.

The other team member's voices drew him from his thoughts and he watched as they began lowering four small motorboats into the water. He followed them down into one of the boats and waited anxiously as they left the ship. The Coast Guard ship had anchored a little ways away from the island, but they crossed the remaining space in only a few minutes and approximately forty men and women in dark clothing landed on the beach. McKenzie, as the leader of the team, was supposed to give the orders to split the teams into smaller search units.

He immediately spotted what the chopper pilots had referred to as a 'yellow tent' and walked towards it, followed by a few of his team members. As he had suspected, it was definitely the inflatable slide from the plane, cut up and hung over a long branch to provide cover. A circle of small stones was set up a few paces from the tent and had obviously been used as a fireplace. He looked around, hoping for some sign of life.

He was just about to order the team to split up over his headset, when movement in the bushes off to the side caught his attention. With a quick hand-motion he alerted his team and they watched cautiously as the bushes were bent aside and two women stepped through onto the beach. McKenzie's mouth dropped open upon seeing them, he'd been shown their pictures repeatedly over the past two months, and for a few seconds he was too stunned to say anything.

Amelia and Turtle couldn't believe their eyes and at first thought they'd finally gone crazy. But when several of the people clad in dark clothing came advancing towards them, they realized this was for real. Immediately there were people asking them questions and looking them over for injuries, never even leaving them a chance to fully take the situation in.

McKenzie advanced on them, still completely shocked at the fact that they'd actually found survivors. He couldn't remember the last time he'd found survivors. "Amelia Herzog and Rebecca Davis, correct?"

When they nodded he smiled at them and introduced himself. It was truly a miracle and he was glad to have two less passengers missing, maybe these two even knew what had happened to the other eight, "Are you two the only ones here? Was there anyone else with you?"

"Something took Greenlee and Peter, and Bianca and Blake went after them. You have to find them, whatever took them already took Rachel, Joe, Father Abe and Jan," the younger girl replied in a shaky voice and McKenzie once again found himself speechless. Not only was she accounting for all other eight missing passengers, but also according to her there were more survivors.

In somewhat of a daze he ordered someone to take the two women to the ship immediately and then, over his headset, informed the rest of his team that they'd be splitting up. They had to find the other survivors before it was too late. McKenzie had heard of weird tribal villages built on some of these deserted islands and he doubted that if they were kidnapping intruders of the island they had very good intentions. And McKenzie refused to let any more survivors slip from his grasp.

They set out into the forest immediately, searching with a fervor he hadn't felt in a long time.

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Bianca's legs were asleep and she felt stiff all over from sitting on the ground for so long. But unfortunately for them the village people had had no intentions of leaving Greenlee unattended long enough for a rescue mission. The sun was going to set soon and already there was a purple glow to the sky. At least it was less hot and humid, the air having cooled off some. She flicked a pesky ant off her leg and looked over at her companion.

Blake was sitting next to her, his face unreadable. He was twiddling a crooked stick with a very sharp stone he'd taken from camp and Bianca wished he'd stop. She was nervous beyond words, knowing that any minute now they could be running into the middle of a very dangerous situation, but she also knew that she could never live with herself if she didn't try to rescue her friends.

"Hey, look," Blake suddenly whispered and nudged her, pointing at the village circle. In the middle of the village had assembled what appeared to be most of the village's young men, all dressed in feathers, carrying all kinds of weapons.

"Looks like they're going hunting," Bianca remarked and watched as the young men set off, leaving the village nearly deserted.

"This is our chance," the blonde man nodded towards the village and Bianca felt her chest constrict in fear. It did indeed seem that with the departure of the warriors and hunters the village was completely empty. On top of that, the sun had set far enough for them to be able to hide in the shadows. The post Greenlee was tied to was less than a hundred feet from them, but they had no idea were Peter was being held.

Blake got up onto his knees and then stood, crouching still to avoid being seen. Bianca stretched her legs awkwardly and followed suit. Throwing another glance at the now empty village, they both set foot into the lion's den. When no alarms sounded as they stepped further into the village, they both relaxed slightly and quickly hurried over to the pole.

It was then that they saw the stone slab in the middle of the village and if she hadn't been so deeply afraid Bianca would have thrown up at the sight of the dead body tied to it. First she almost ran over, just to make sure he wasn't really dead, but Blake stopped her and shook his head. They were in the middle of the village, hiding in the shadows thrown by the trees and huts around them. When they finally reached the pole, Blake wasted no time in cutting Greenlee's restraints and within a few seconds the older girl fell forward into Bianca.

"Bianca?" Greenlee croaked, feeling like the whole island was swaying and spinning around her.

"Greenlee, come on, we've got to get out of here," Bianca whispered urgently, her heart hammering so loudly in her chest she thought the villagers would surely hear, and threw a concerned glance at Blake. He nodded at her and started running back towards the forest, followed closely by Bianca who was pulling on the other girl's arm.

Sprinting from where the pole was into the forest really should've taken only a few seconds, but for Bianca it not only seemed like forever, she was also afraid it was going to be never. As she was moving along, trying to pull her friend by her arm, she felt resistance and turned to find Greenlee rooted to the spot, looking extremely pale, before she sank to her knees. Bianca tried to pull her back up onto her feet, but the older girl only fell forward onto her hands and threw up what little food they'd eaten in the past months. Bianca watched in horror; she had never been so afraid of her life as at that moment, the edge of the forest almost within reach, but yet so far away.

"Blake!" she yelled in her desperation and Bianca knelt down next to Greenlee, who was still retching on all fours, now shaking vigorously.

"Greenlee, please get up, I'm sorry about what happened, but please, you've got to get up, now!" Bianca pleaded, her voice shaking in fear and she angrily wiped the tears from her eyes that she hadn't even known where there. Tilting Greenlee's head towards her, she looked into the older girl's eyes and was taken aback at the fact that one of Greenlee's pupils was completely enlarged and the other no bigger than a pinhead.

Before she had a chance to further contemplate, Blake was next to her and picked Greenlee up, yelling at her to follow. Bianca jumped up and was about to run into the forest as well, when she heard a commotion behind her. Not hesitating a second, she rushed into the bushes along with Blake, trying to ignore the shouts of the villagers that had noticed them escaping.

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They'd been running for several minutes now and Bianca knew Blake was getting tired. The village was far behind them and so far it didn't seem like anyone was catching up to them, so Bianca slowed to a stop, panting, and stopped Blake as well.

"We can just…take a breather for a few, okay?" she managed to squeeze out between deep breaths and although he looked doubtful, he dropped to his knees, lowering Greenlee to the ground.

"What's wrong with her?" Bianca asked, leaning over the other girl who was now unconscious.

"Probably a concussion. She's gotten hit over the head enough times in the past months," he sighed, knowing that her lack of consciousness meant he'd have to continue carrying her. It was a situation he definitely detested.

"Alright…we should probably get going. If those villagers are following us, they're gonna catch up. How about we both try carrying her so you don't have to do all the work," she suggested and they stood, each pulling one of Greenlee's arms over their shoulder, one of their own holding her up around the waist.

Moving with a lifeless body between them was definitely more difficult and they had no idea how far they still were from their camp. Not to mention the fact that the villagers knew where their camp was and could probably easily beat them there. The utter hopelessness of the situation had settled over both of them and neither knew exactly what to do next. Foremost on Bianca's mind was getting Greenlee to safety and making sure her friend was alright; she'd never forgive herself if the other girl wasn't okay. After all it had been her own stupidity that had sent Greenlee into the forest with Peter. And the thought of the dead man tied to the stone slab brought fresh tears to her eyes. Bianca doubted she'd ever be able to erase the image of seeing his dead body.

Shaking her head to erase the frightening images she unconsciously tightened her hold around Greenlee's waist. They were advancing on a large bush that was several feet long and, remembering they'd come through it on their way to the village, she indicated to Blake the direction. The branches were thick and the two fought their way through it, coming through on the other side only to stop dead in their tracks.

In front of them were at least ten people in military type clothing, speaking through headsets to each other. Within seconds the people were upon them, taking Greenlee from their arms and Bianca sank to her knees as the relief washed over her, tears streaming down her face.

Almost done…only one more chapter to go!